March 8, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza has moved here.

The US military struck two Houthi truck-mounted anti-ship missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Friday, US Central Command said. 

Later in the day, Houthis fired two missiles from Yemen into the Gulf of Aden at the Singapore-owned ship, the M/V Propel Fortune, CENTCOM said. 

The missiles did not hit the ship and there were no injuries.

The attack came three days after the first fatal assault by the Iran-backed militant group in its ongoing assaults in the Red Sea. At least three crew members were killed and four others injured on Wednesday  in the Gulf of Aden after a Houthi ballistic missile struck the M/V True Confidence, a Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned bulk carrier.

Palestinian children walk past rubble in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Friday.

Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza has exposed the entire population of more than 2.2 million people to severe hunger, dehydration and disease — with women in particular facing challenges finding food, sanitary products and maternity care.

Additionally, the number of people who have died of dehydration and malnutrition in Gaza has risen to at least 23, according to a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the enclave.

Israel’s bombardment has also wiped out educational infrastructure. Children in the enclave are expected to lose at least a year of schooling because of the war, according to the United Nations.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Ultra-Orthodox Israelis have long held a privileged position in that society.

Their religious schools, or yeshivas, get generous government subsidies. And yet young men of the Haredim, as they are known in Hebrew, are in all practical terms exempt from mandatory military service.

That exemption has bedeviled Israeli society since its founding. But a legal deadline to come up with a more equitable social compact, at least in the eyes of the Supreme Court, now looms at the end of March.

Powerful members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have made clear they will not help him kick the can down the road without broad political support.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews view religious study as fundamental to the preservation of Judaism. For many of those who live in Israel, that means study is just as important to Israel’s defense as the military.

In Israel’s nascent days, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion agreed with Haredi rabbis to exempt from military service 400 men studying in religious schools, or yeshivas. In 1948, there were few Haredim in Israel – many were and remain opposed to the state on religious grounds – and the exemption had little practical impact.

In 1998, Israel’s Supreme Court ripped up the longstanding exemption, telling the government that allowing Haredim to get out of conscription violated equal protection principles. In the decades since, successive governments and Knessets have tried to solve the issue, only to be told again and again by the court that their efforts were illegal.

Read more about the brewing clash in Israel over conscription

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.

Angry Israelis cut across a field of stubble to try to get around a police blockade to disrupt shipments of food and supplies intended for Gaza.

For weeks Israeli border officers allowed protesters to disrupt the critical aid convoys at Kerem Shalom, the country’s sole functioning border crossing with Gaza. But at the end of last month, with international pressure and condemnation mounting, authorities announced they were moving additional officers to the crossing to take back control. But even with the area now declared a closed military zone, protesters continue to arrive and try to outmaneuver the police.

The protests are being led by the “Tsav 9” movement, a grouping of demobilized reservists, families of hostages and settlers. Its name, meaning “Order 9,” is a reference to the emergency mobilization notices that call up reservists.

The protesters say they fear the aid is helping militants still holding their friends and relatives hostage, five months after the murderous cross-border raids led by Hamas that killed about 1,200 people in Israel with 200 more being taken prisoner.

They hope preventing food and supplies from entering Gaza will force Hamas to release them. A recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that two-thirds of Jewish Israelis support their view opposing the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Read more about the protesters seeking to prevent aid getting to Gaza

The Canadian government on Friday said it will restart assistance for people in Gaza through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Despite concerns and ongoing investigations into allegations against some UNRWA staff about complicity in Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack, Canada said it is resuming its funding to UNRWA so more can be done to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians. 

This decision aims to address the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians while maintaining a commitment to accountability and reforms, Ahmed Hussen, the minister of International Development, said in a statement. He didn’t say when the funding would resume. 

Juliette Touma, Director of Communications for UNRWA, welcomed Canada’s decision – and called on other countries that have suspended funding to reconsider their decisions.

Speaking during the UN General Assembly meeting on Monday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said 16 countries paused their funding, totaling $450 million, despite “the unsubstantiated nature of the allegations.”

He added that “UNRWA has no capacity to absorb financial shocks, especially while a war rages in Gaza.”

A Palestinian child suffering from malnutrition receives treatment at a healthcare center in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on March 4. Children and mothers are among those most at risk of severe malnutrition.

The number of people who have died of dehydration and malnutrition in Gaza has risen to at least 23, according to a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the enclave.

CNN cannot independently confirm the deaths or their causes, due to the lack of international media access to wartime Gaza.

Three more children died Friday at Al-Shifa Hospital due to malnutrition and dehydration, according to Ashraf al-Qidra, a health ministry spokesperson.

Officials with aid organizations and international bodies have warned for weeks that displaced Palestinians are struggling to feed their children as Israel severely restricts aid deliveries. The United Nations says hundreds of thousands of people are on the brink of famine.

US President Joe Biden on Friday cast doubt on the prospect of striking a deal that includes a temporary ceasefire paired with a release of hostages by Ramadan.

Officials had hoped to secure a deal by the start of the Muslim holy month, but talks remain stalled. CNN previously reported hopes had dimmed for deal before Ramadan, which starts early next week.

Medical NGO, Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), called the US plan to build a temporary pier to deliver aid by sea to Gaza a “glaring distraction” from the reality of what’s happening there.

Benoît went on to say that US efforts should instead be placed on pressuring Israel to allow increased food and medical aid into Gaza by road. 

“This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem. Rather than look to the US military to build a work-around, the US should insist on immediate humanitarian access using the roads and entry points that already exist,” Benoît said. 

Benoît reiterated MSF’s view that a ceasefire “is the only way to ensure a real scale up in emergency assistance” to Gaza. 

More than 30,000 Gazans have been killed and 70,000 injured since the start of the war, the enclave’s health ministry says. Gaza’s health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but has said in recent updates that around 70% of the casualties are women and children.  

CNN reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for reaction to Benoît’s comments, but has not yet heard back. 

Israel has previously rejected accusations that it has indiscriminately bombed Gaza, saying its air force has carried out a “precise” and “focused” campaign. Israel has also claimed its objective is to dismantle Hamas after the militant group carried out the October 7 attack that left over 1,200 dead.

Israel Defense Forces fighter jets carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah targets Friday, after the military said it detected several rocket launches from southern Lebanon.

The IDF said it struck a military compound near the town of Marwahin, “terror infrastructure” in the area of Labbouneh, and a military post near the village of Ayta ash Shab, where the IDF says it detected numerous launches throughout the day.

“Following the strike on the military post, secondary explosions were identified, indicating that weapons were located inside the post,” the IDF claimed.

On its Telegram channel, Hezbollah confirmed that the group carried out artillery strikes on Israeli military sites Friday.

There were no immediate reports of casualties on either side of the border.

Meanwhile, the Hezbollah-backed Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, citing Western sources, reported that Israel has set a deadline of March 15 for the militant group to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon.

A senior US official told CNN: “Washington is unaware of the reports of a March 15 deadline. We are focused on the diplomatic approach, where efforts are still ongoing.”

Remember: This fighting is centered on the border between southern Lebanon and northern Israel, while the Israeli campaign against Hamas is centered further south in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed paramilitary group, has engaged in months of daily, deadly cross-border strikes with Israel that have displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israeli residents from their homes.

Hezbollah is among several Iranian proxies at the center of global concerns that the fighting in Gaza will spread further through the Middle East.

CNN’s Zeena Saifi and Becky Anderson contributed reporting to this post. It has also been updated with the details of a report about a possible March 15 deadline for Hezbollah.

A floating pier and causeway that will be used to deliver critical humanitarian aid by sea to Gaza is expected to take at least one month — or possibly two — to become fully operational, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said on Friday. Ryder also said the construction will likely require as many as 1,000 US military personnel to complete.

How it will work: The maritime corridor will be used by multiple nations, but the floating pier off the coast of Gaza will be run by the US government and will be constructed by the US military, including Navy and Army personnel.

The pier will allow ships to offload aid, which will then be transported across a causeway into Gaza that will also be constructed by the US military, officials said. The US is still trying to determine who will be on the other side of the causeway to receive the aid and distribute it inside the strip, they said.

How it was developed: The temporary pier concept was developed in part by an organization called Fogbow, according to a person familiar with the planning, which is an advisory group comprised of former military, United Nations, and USAID and CIA personnel.

What Biden is saying: In his announcement on Thursday, US President Joe Biden promised “no US boots will be on the ground.” When pressed Friday by reporters at Joint Base Andrews about who would provide security for the port, Biden said it would be the Israelis.

Biden also told reporters Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to allow more aid into Gaza.

Read more about the logistics of the port plan.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.

The US Defense Department says that none of the US humanitarian airdrops into Gaza on Friday have resulted in civilian casualties.

At least five people were killed and 10 others injured when aid fell on them, according to a journalist on the scene and a doctor who confirmed the toll. 

Video of apparent malfunction: A video obtained by CNN on Friday shows how an airdrop into the strip went wrong when the parachute on a pallet of aid apparently malfunctioned. In the video, the pallet and its contents can be seen falling at a high speed toward residential buildings near the Fairouz Towers in western Gaza. As the aid raced toward the ground, free-falling bags came apart in a shower of debris, and can later be seen and heard impacting the ground with loud thuds.

Ryder said that with the fourth airdrop on Friday, the total number of meals dropped into Gaza stands at over 124,000.

Aid parcels are airdropped over the northern Gaza Strip on Friday.

The US and Jordanian militaries conducted an additional airdrop of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza on Friday, US Central Command said in a statement.

The airdrop was conducted approximately 1:30 p.m. local time.

US and Jordanian forces previously carried out three airdrops over the past week, with 38,000 meals dropped on both Thursday and Saturday, and over 36,000 dropped on Tuesday, according to CENTCOM.

Hunger in northern Gaza: Aid agencies and those on the ground say the situation is particularly dire in the north of the strip. The World Health Organization says child malnutrition levels in northern Gaza are “particularly extreme” and roughly three times higher than in the south.

Angry Israelis cut across a field of stubble to try to get around a police blockade to hamper shipments of food and supplies intended for Gaza.

For weeks, Israeli border officers allowed protesters to disrupt the critical aid convoys at Kerem Shalom, the country’s sole functioning border crossing with Gaza. But at the end of last month, with international pressure and condemnation mounting, authorities announced they were moving additional officers to the crossing to take back control. But even with the area now declared a closed military zone, protesters continue to arrive and try to outmaneuver the police.

The protests are being led by the “Tsav 9” movement, a grouping of demobilized reservists, families of hostages and settlers. Its name, meaning “Order 9,” is a reference to the emergency mobilization notices that call up reservists.

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The protesters say they fear the aid is helping militants still holding their friends and relatives hostage, five months after the murderous cross-border raids led by Hamas that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, with 200 more being taken prisoner. They hope preventing food and supplies from entering Gaza will force Hamas to release them. A recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that two-thirds of Jewish Israelis support their view opposing the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 30,000 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, and the remaining population has been forced from their homes and struggle to survive. The World Health Organization says food and safe water have become scarce and diseases are spreading. There is a surge of acute malnutrition, it says. Children are dying.

But aid has been slow to reach those in desperate need, and Israel restricts what can go in.

Read more and view additional videos from the scene at the border crossing.

A satellite image from March 6 reveals that an east-west road being built in Gaza by Israeli military stretches from the Gaza-Israeli border area across the entire roughly 6.5-kilometer-wide (about 4-mile-wide) strip, dividing northern Gaza, including Gaza City, from the south of the enclave. About 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) includes an existing road, while the rest is new, according to CNN’s analysis.

Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli told CNN that the new road will “make it easier” for the Israeli military to launch raids north of Gaza City and south, to the central area of the Gaza Strip.

The road, which he said will be used for at least a year, will have three lanes: one for heavy tanks and armored vehicles, another for lighter vehicles and a third for faster movement. It will be possible to drive on the Netzarim Corridor from Be’eri, an Israeli kibbutz near the Gaza border, to the Mediterranean Sea in seven minutes, he said.

Read more about this road in Gaza and its objective.

A woman walks past the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Rafah, Gaza, on March 3.

Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks has exposed the entire population of more than 2.2 million people to severe hunger, dehydration and disease — with women in particular facing challenges finding food, sanitary products and maternity care.

On International Women’s Day, the Ministry of Health in Gaza issued a statement highlighting the suffering of mothers and daughters in the strip. Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 9,000 women, according to the ministry. On average, 63 women are killed per day, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported on Friday. 

According to the UNRWA report: 

Violence in the occupied West Bank: Israel’s offensive in Gaza has spilled into the occupied territory. Israeli forces there have detained 240 women since October 7, in an “unprecedented escalation” compared to previous years, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society. Among them are journalists, lawyers and university students, the organization said.

The Israeli military’s latest review of the carnage at a food convoy on February 29 undermines key elements of previous Israel Defense Forces statements about the sequence of events.

More than 100 people were killed after Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians who surrounded food aid trucks in northern Gaza last Thursday, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

What the IDF initially said: The Israeli military sought to cast the gunfire from its forces and the aid convoy panic as “two different incidents” at two different locations, and insisted that the gunfire happened only after chaos unfolded. But eyewitnesses on the ground said Israeli gunfire triggered the pandemonium, provoking truck drivers to flee the scene and run over multiple people.

IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner told CNN on February 29 the rush for aid resulted in a “mass casualty event that actually has very little or nothing to do with Israel,” and that the gunfire was “at a different location further south, away from the convoy.”

During a separate background briefing, an IDF spokesperson said: “The truckloads went into the north and then there was the stampede, and afterward there was the event against our forces.”

What the timeline says now: But a timeline released by the Israeli military on Friday says the first Israeli gunfire came about one minute after the aid convoy began to pass an Israeli military checkpoint and crossed into a civilian area of Gaza City. The timeline says thousands of Gazans rushed toward the convoy and IDF troops at the same time.

The IDF statement states that IDF forces fired on people who advanced toward them “during the incidents of crowding.” 

The new IDF timeline closely matches how Khader Al Za’anoun, a local journalist, described what unfolded. At the time, he told CNN that large crowds immediately gathered around the convoy and Israeli forces opened fire within minutes. He said it was the gunfire that triggered truck drivers to flee, and that many were killed in the ensuing chaos.

Before the war, Layan Albanna, 17, was excited to finish her senior year of school. These days, she walks through the rubble-filled streets of Rafah, in southern Gaza, listening to the sound of waves lapping the shoreline.  

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since October 7 has wiped out educational infrastructure. Children in the enclave are expected to lose at least a year of schooling because of the war, according to the United Nations.  

Mohammed Hamouda, a displaced health worker in Rafah, previously told CNN he was heartbroken when the war disrupted education for his eldest daughter, Ella, 6. 

“She deserves it, but life here has become very hard,” added Hamouda, a father-of-three. “There are no schools here for the public, so how can we even find a school that appreciates how smart she is?” 

The European Union is planning to open an emergency maritime aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, EU President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday, which she said is aiming to open over the weekend.

It comes a day after US President Joe Biden revealed plans for the US military to establish a temporary port on the Gaza coast. Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom will join in the effort. The “complex” operation will be coordinated with Israel’s government, according to a joint statement statement. Israel said it welcomed the plan.

International aid workers and US administration officials have stressed that there must be a “flood” of aid to the people of Gaza, and that the most effective way to do so is via overland crossings.

US officials have claimed for months that the only reason that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shifted on any of his positions regarding the conflict in Gaza is because of efforts by the Biden administration. Biden offered a glimpse into the tensions Thursday after concluding his State of the Union speech, in which he offered a pointed message to the “leadership of Israel” that “humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.”

Here’s what else to know:

Current airdropped aid fails to meet needs: Palestinians in northern Gaza struggle to use the aid recently airdropped by the US and Jordan, because it does not include essential food supplies, according to Abdel Qader Al Sabbah, a journalist based in northern Gaza. “The bodies in charge of these air drops should consider dropping flour, rice, oil, salt, and other seeds and beans, so people here can benefit from these and prepare several meals,” he said, adding that current aid is ready-to-eat meals, which are single portions intended to be eaten the same day, rather than foodstuffs that could be stored and used over several days.

At least 5 killed in a failed aid airdrop: At least five people were killed and 10 others injured on Friday when airdropped aid packages fell on them in the Al-Shati camp west of Gaza City, according to a journalist on the scene who witnessed the incident and then confirmed by a doctor. A video obtained by CNN on Friday shows that the parachute on a pallet of aid apparently malfunctioned.

IDF denies firing at aid convoy: At least 118 Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces opened fire at a Gaza City food distribution site last week, but Israel said its initial investigation found its troops did not fire at the humanitarian convoy, but at a “number of suspects” who approached the nearby forces. CNN cannot independently verify this. The Palestinian foreign ministry rejected the findings, saying Israel “always lies and covers up for its soldiers in order to protect them from accountability and prosecution.” It called for an independent international probe. The United Nations said earlier this week that most of the civilians wounded in the incident presented gunshot wounds.

US military says it shot down Houthi missiles and drones: US forces shot down four anti-ship cruise missiles and one drone over Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Thursday, US Central Command said. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to pressure Israel and its allies to stop the war in Gaza.

A video obtained by CNN on Friday shows how a humanitarian airdrop into Gaza went wrong when the parachute on a pallet of aid apparently malfunctioned.

At least five people were killed and 10 others injured when the aid fell on them, according to a journalist on the scene, and a doctor who confirmed the toll.

In the video, the pallet and its contents can be seen falling at a high speed toward residential buildings near the Fairouz Towers in western Gaza. As the aid raced toward the ground, free-falling bags came apart in a shower of debris, and can later be seen and heard impacting the ground with loud thuds.

While most of the other parachutes appeared to deploy properly, the pallets were still falling at a potentially dangerous speed.

The parachutes attached to three pallets collided with each other shortly before hitting the ground, the video shows. Those three chutes fell in an area where a number of people had gathered, and appeared to hit the ground at a higher speed than the other packages.

The transport plane seen delivering the faulty airdrop is a military Boeing C-17, although it was not immediately clear which air force was flying the mission.

CNN’s Jonny Hallam contributed to the report.